Some ramble about shops

[sberry]

I certainly would have done if different if I could have walked over to the dealer part counter and picked it out of stock. Also be different if what I did wasnt going to work.
As I was sorting for some bits and pieces I take a little inventory and gonna add on to the list a few little pieces they typically use that there is not really a good fix to even in a crisis. I ordered a couple kits and a couple new tools and got to get off it before another rolls by to get another tool or 2 I need not a great way around it. Really worth it in a single event considering the cost risk.
Contrary to my dialog I do buy new and wont hesitate if I think it effects production. I bought 3 bags hose clamps, 2 boxes screws, 4 caulking, gloves, 1 set wrenches, 6 more screwdrivers, a new dig caliper, IR gun, a little dremel clone kit.
Couple things local auto parts, the secretary got 2 new shock things for her truck cost 300$.
I find the term consumable to be a great term for some of this. I buy duct tape, some grinding wheels and some tools. Compared to the time/effort a 2$ blade for a single event is irrelevent, same for nuts and bolts, we dont put rusted worn stuck **** back together and,,, very important,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I must have about a dozen grade 8 bolts in stock. I however have a decent selection of 5 and some in 2 which I rack different and do use but I dont remove factory bolts from these and replace with the wrong ones. I have had hired out jobs, got kids do it and every bolt looks the same and on a bulldozer it aint so and Bob is a super smart guy but I had to poke him with a stick to be practical and the bench connections in his suburban garage dont need 5 grade 8 with reamed holes.
We did a steel job a while back and it had quite a few parts, the helper said,,, I was envisioning all this drilling and I cut the holes plasma and we washer it under the nut. Was all hand tightened.
At one point I stock only 5, we had a lot of hard moving stuff and had others working on it, it cost a little more but didnt need to may so much attn and could simple farmer tight it all. I still got a couple size things I buy only in 5, just weeds out the chances of using a soft bolt in it.

 

[Ton ton]

Sberry's writing is an acquired taste. I think it best when he has his own threads like this one.

-HF

I agree.

 

[sberry]

The real root of this problem, not including about 20 leaks was that sleeve in post 68. I took it all apart to install one roll pin.
This was an adventure. I am not so great with manuals and some is over my head, once I been thru it and some splainin the book makes some sense, I am not academic in the least, I hate to study. You show me, I watch it, I can do.
I want to learn this tractor, its got a buttload of stuff and I hate all that circuit **** anyway. I got a better idea how some works and am going to go back and read, I wanted to learn some basic trouble shooting here vs figuring out what went wrong and fixing.
The cart before the horse,,, if I know at least some rudimentary theory I stand a chance of figuring out what went wrong and the fixing is really rather generic for the most part.
I work on a lot I never work on, I am going to try and narrow it a bit but I got to be on my toes about some specifics and get a fair amount had a middle man between the factory and me. I am not a restorer on these but just the combination of bolt lengths is like constant chess. JD has a predisposition to using 1 3/4 bolts and **** like that. Old ones had lock and some machine washers. I got a couple parts books, on other models, older USA have put them together line item and so when the guy before me use soft bolts it ruined the machine.

 

[sberry]

So,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, the point of all that is that its fixin rather than rebuilding. A lot of immediate gratification in fixing.

 

[Cgw1984]

So, this seems to be about buying cheap **** and cobbling things together to kinda get by. Cant agree. Grew up on a small (650 acre) farm. Wouldnt consider that approach.

 

[sberry]

You are not reading it right. It's about getting what's needed economically. Economy means it's affordable now, get when needed vs saving up for every item.

 

[May Pop]

I dont believe that was what was said or implied by SBerry at all. Doing a proper-quality repair does not need to have the most expensive tool just what will do the job economically and efficiently. Ive never read any post by Sberry that said do a half-assed job and get paid. Maybe I missed that post?

Ron

 

[May Pop]

You beat me to CGWs reply.

 

[sberry]

It's gotta work. It doesn't all got to be rebuilt like new all the time. I buy new when it makes sense and when I have to. We don't try to revive batteries and don't go to the junkyard for common parts but i got no problem fixing something if its practical and will last the intended use. Mostly I don't want to wait on every item, I put brushes or a bearing in and service it, didn't need to be new, gonna outlast the truck it's going back in.

 

[matt_i]

I find the biggest timesavers in the shop are mill and lathe.

Early on, I was really good with a bandsaw and a file, that worked very well up to a point. I have seen guys make prototype tools with die grinders and flap wheels.

Biggest advantage of the mill is as a jig drill, in other words, I can drill as well as I can measure. No more slotting holes, or drilling big oversized hole patterns to get things to fit on what's already there when I got a pencil mark off in the past or a pilot drill wandered off a center punch, I don't waste time tapping holes crooked because they are as well aligned as the drilled pilot hole.

Things that need to be welded start square, so much easier than guessing and having to tweak with a torch or hammer later or even cut it back apart.

If a person only used a lathe to face things square again and never unlocked the rest of the potential in the machine, that is a great step forward in getting rough cuts and round tubes to stand up straight and not wobble.

I probably work a little differently as a career maintenance person, the bad/worn u joint you described I'd never put it back together after just a grease job, it would just be a snake out in the weeds waiting to bite me later when I have fifty-eleven other issues on the platter and I'd feel like I didn't do my job if I had the time to do it correctly while it was all opened up.

 

[sberry]

I am a career maintenance person too but my perspective is somewhat different. I never use a mill or lathe, I can, I don't, have access to it for free but just don't need it so much. The u joint would have been replaced if,,, it was going to see 5000 hrs vs 50, if so.eone wanted to pay me to fuss with it, if I wanted to wait on a part, if no one cared about the cost, if it mattered. Same for the ****** in my plow truck, if it was going otr for 100k or million miles then it would be another matter, just didn't want it jumping out of reverse in the next hundred miles.
Some perspective comes from the nature of the employment. I been around. Not one plant, a dozen, dozen job shops etc. Maint guys are often ,, well,, they are often a fixed cost, the culture,, the way we did it at the plant,, etc. When I started working out I often brought home stuff I saw, I copied but my perspective was often skewed. I used 500$ cumalongs at work, thought that was what we used everywhere, today I carry a 50$ one. I don't do the same as when I work in a nuke, don't paint everything like an airplane. I can use a rattle can too.

 

[SuperCat]

Perspective comes from experience. Some folks do only one job for a long time and don't get much of big picture view, they literally just don't look up and around. Others do a lot of different stuff, move around, get promoted and climb the ladder a bit. They have a different view, much bigger, more thinking about the short term vs. the long term. That's what I read so many threads for, that big picture view gained from experience that I don't have. I'm just a life long student here on GJ, learning from the folks who have done a hell of a lot more for a lot longer than me.